In Japan, Car Sales Surge — Imported Cars, That Is

By WSJ Staff

Sales of Japanese vehicles are down globally but nowhere more so than in their home market, which is still struggling to recover from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Most of Japan’s automakers are producing vehicles at just 50% of capacity due to an acute shortage of key parts and their monthly sales have collapsed to record lows. But that’s not bad news for all brands. Sales of cars with foreign nameplates are surging, as some Japanese buyers seem to be turning to import vehicles to make up for a lack of inventory in Japan’s big three automaker showrooms.

Imported new vehicle sales in Japan rose 43% in April to 16,627 cars, according to the Japan Automobile Importers Association. By comparison, domestic sales of Japanese brand cars, including mini-vehicles, sank 47% last month to an all-time low of 185,673. Toyota Motor Corp., Japan’s largest automaker and seller, saw its sales at home sink 69% in April compared to the same month a year earlier.

Toyota is scheduled to release its latest earnings, for the three months ended on March 31, at 3:00 pm Japan Standard Time on Wednesday.

To be sure, not all foreign cars sold in Japan are import brands. JAIA’s figures include cars made overseas by Japanese automakers and shipped back here. But even so, sales of non-Japanese imports increased 21.0% in April to 12,560 vehicles.

The biggest winner was Volkswagen AG, which saw its sales in Japan up 5.9% last month to 2,970, which represents an 18% share of all imports. Close behind VW was Nissan Motor Co. with sales of 2,768 units, mostly of its compact March model, which is made in Thailand and shipped to Japan. No. 3 was BMW, with sales of 2,260 vehicles in April.

In the niche category, JAIA said Japanese buyers in April bought 222 Ford Motor Co. vehicles, 31 Hummers and five Lamborghinis. And one Pontiac.